The first trailer of this new film is below.
Conclave is an upcoming thriller film directed by Edward Berger and written by Peter Straughan, based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Robert Harris. It stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini.
The premise:
Cardinal Lawrence, tasked with finding the successor to the deceased Pope, discovers the former Pope had a secret that must be uncovered.
The New York Times had this to say about the novel:
“Conclave” [is] a tightly woven tale about power machinations at the top of the Roman Catholic Church. The pope, a reformist figure with echoes of the current Pope Francis in his antipathy for pomp and circumstance, has just died, and more than 100 cardinals from around the world are gathering to elect his successor.
Taking place over only 72 hours, within the barricaded, claustrophobic confines of the back rooms of Vatican City — which is to say: the Sistine Chapel and the Casa Santa Marta — the book imagines the secret process from the inside, culminating in a denouement that to many will seem so provocatively scandalous this could become a Catholic version of “The Satanic Verses” (though presumably without the same consequences for its author).
Sequestered there and led by Cardinal Lomeli, who as dean of the College of Cardinals will administer the vote, they must choose between four apparent contenders for the job: Joseph Tremblay, a mediagenic Canadian with a good head of hair and a talent for spin; Joshua Adeyemi, a charismatic Nigerian who represents diversity as well as a hard-line attitude toward homosexuality; Goffredo Tedesco, an archconservative Italian who would bring Latin back to the liturgy; and Aldo Bellini, an intellectual Italian with reformist tendencies. Each has his supporters, and his all-too-human — which is to say, somewhat facile — hidden flaws, turning the election into a marathon of negotiating, horse trading and odds making.
Into this comes a wild card: an unknown Filipino cardinal from Iraq who has been raised to his position in pectore — that is, in secret, with only the pope and God knowing his name. And then the voting begins. Needless to say, spiritual discussion is only part of the proceedings.
Lomeli learns that the former pope, before his death, had been secretly investigating Cardinal Tremblay. So he reluctantly begins to play detective, piecing together timelines and motivations to see what he can uncover. Gradually the temptations of man are exposed to — well, not the world, since what happens in the Vatican appears to stay in the Vatican, but at least the light of Lomeli, who must wrestle with his own ambitions and expectations. Not surprisingly, the great sins of sexual dalliance, bribery and hubris all play a part, and the choice gets winnowed down.
Check out the trailer below. The film is due for release in November.
